8/13/13 Update - better battery?

[Ruffles]

Among today's updates is a firmware update that is supposed to:

"UEFI and System Aggregator (SAM) firmware update that enhances system stability, reliability, reduces power consumption, and improves touch latency with the touchpad on the Surface Type Cover and Surface Touch Cover."

Wonder if we'll see any better battery life?

 

[lethal.industry]

will update it once i get home. will post feedback

 

[demandarin]

thanks for the heads up. about to install now.

just earlier I installed the better drivers from wiacom for the pen to allow pressure sensitivity and more pen options. also have the full intel hd 4000 graphics driver that brings graphics control panel.

 

[MJS9]

I updated and sadly had to roll the graphics driver back to 9.18.10.3071. ArcGIS 10.1 wouldn't work otherwise. The resolution has improved though.

EDIT: For any ArcGIS users, I just found another option was to install the newest graphics driver (9.17.10.3062), and in Control Panel, disable the display adapter. Not particularly elegant, but ArcGIS works again and the new driver is installed. However, if you use ArcGIS 10.1 on your Surface Pro with an external monitor, this solution won't work for you (I don't think?). You'll need to enable the display adapter to use an external monitor, and subsequently won't be able to use ArcGIS. Doh!

 

[demandarin]

update went well. myh graphics driver is 9.17.3062. im not sure if this is the generic one I installed the other day or an updated one. but I do notice the graphics control panel now doesn't show my surface display. whats the version of the new graphics driver? I could always roll back or reinstall the generic one from before that had everything in graphics control panel working.

edit: this is a new driver. I had the same one you rolled back to after update. how do you determine if the resolution/display has improved? other than by just sight. if I notice any issues, other than the graphics control panel not showing display, then ill roll back also. I know Microsoft does their own custom version of the driver. I wonder how it differs from Intel generic one. I have to check to see if intel ended up releasing a new generic one also. the exe. version throws error on install but using zip version installs fine.

 

[MJS9]

The new one is 9.17.10.3062

 

[dleuen]

I'm not sure about battery life but I do feel like the mouse pad on my Type Keyboard is much better than before.

 

[lethal.industry]

no battery life difference

 

[mitchellvii]

Hard to tell how much of this is placebo effect, but to my eye the screen colors seem a bit more vivid and fonts appear less jagged in IE. So cool.

** Update - After a few more minutes with this I would say screen image is definitely improved. Excellent. In addition I find that my wifi is reliably reconnecting after coming out of sleep whereas before it would take over a minute at times and often not at all. I am hopeful about video streaming in IE as that has been pure crap in the past.

One more thing. When swiping back to a previous page in IE, the page refreshes faster. That would hang at times and was annoying.

** Update - Oh yeah, video streaming in IE is MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH better. Before I would almost always hang trying to watch embedded videos in Modern IE now it launches instantly.

This update ROCKS.

 

[Ruffles]

No battery improvement for me either. Unfortunately, my fans now make a rattle noise. I'm not sure if they are giving out or if the update changed the speed at which they run but it's bugging me. It's only when they run slow. They sound the same at high speed. Now, I hear them run when they didn't use to.

 

[mitchellvii]

No battery improvement for me either. Unfortunately, my fans now make a rattle noise. I'm not sure if they are giving out or if the update changed the speed at which they run but it's bugging me. It's only when they run slow. They sound the same at high speed. Now, I hear them run when they didn't use to.

Hmmm, could be the speed change is a problem - perhaps your fans are now running at a speed which causes a harmonic vibration; however, it could also be same reason you can hear the voice of one person speaking with you in a crowd and block out all other voices. The very fact you did the update may mean that you are more focused on the fan noise and just didn't notice it before. Or they could just be broken and the timing is a coincidence. Regardless I don't believe the update broke your fan. Mine make no unusual sounds.

I've noticed that at times my fans in my desktop can begin to rattle a bit. I give the desktop a little pop with the palm of my hand and it stops. Try that with your SP - although obviously not too hard and the back, not the glass .

 

[Deleted member 10837]

There is only so much software can do. Hopefully the Haswell chip in the Pro 2 would mean less heat = less cooling = less weight = more battery.